Tariff on Truth

National Geographic is not usually thought of as a fellow-traveling publication. Indeed there are few more refreshing magazines, few so beautifully designed to take the reader out of himself and give him an instant vacation from politics and other humdrum distractions. So it comes as a shock to find Accuracy in Media accusing National Geographic of painting a flattering portrait of Cuba. In a sense, of course, the magazine flatters everyone: you never come away from it saying that Guatemala or Ceylon is uglier than you thought: every country is endowed, in its glossy pages, with vivid splendor, every exotic savage rite enhanced with curiosity and awe. That is the virtue of the magazine, that it suspends judgment in introducing you to alien things.

But the AIM Report calls attention to a feature on Cuba which is full of misinformation, omissions, and misleading formulations, most of which are the result of the National Geographic reporter’s willingness to take the word of Cuban officials. The reader is led to believe that Cuba before the Revolution was poor, illiterate, dominated by predatory yanquis, and so forth; that it was only the “wealthy” who fled, though it is later mentioned that 700,000 (of six million) got out while the getting was good; and, by the distribution of emphasis, that state terrorism plays only a marginal role in the life of the country.

JS

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Joseph Sobran

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National Geographic is not usually thought of as a fellow-traveling publication. Indeed there are few more refreshing magazines, few so beautifully designed to take the reader out of himself and give him an instant vacation from politics and other humdrum distractions. So it comes as a shock to find Accuracy in Media accusing National Geographic of painting a flattering portrait of Cuba. In a sense, of course, the magazine flatters everyone: you never come away from it saying that Guatemala or Ceylon is uglier than you thought: every country is endowed, in its glossy pages, with vivid splendor, every exotic savage rite enhanced with curiosity and awe. That is the virtue of the magazine, that it suspends judgment in introducing you to alien things.

But the AIM Report calls attention to a feature on Cuba which is full of misinformation, omissions, and misleading formulations, most of which are the result of the National Geographic reporter’s willingness to take the word of Cuban officials. The reader is led to believe that Cuba before the Revolution was poor, illiterate, dominated by predatory yanquis, and so forth; that it was only the “wealthy” who fled, though it is later mentioned that 700,000 (of six million) got out while the getting was good; and, by the distribution of emphasis, that state terrorism plays only a marginal role in the life of the country.